


let's power up!

by killyourdarlings



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, Multi, powers!AU, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-15 00:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16051922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killyourdarlings/pseuds/killyourdarlings
Summary: Prompt Code:#232Warnings:past minor character death.Summary:It's been almost two years since Kyungsoo ditched the Academy and he hasn't looked back since.Author's Note:Thank you to Mod Corgi for putting up with me and being so patient. And thank you to the prompter! I hope I did your prompt justice I tried my best.





	let's power up!

Waking up in the morning has always been a bitch. Especially on the groggy days where it’s just grey and rain won’t stop pouring. The pitter patter of the droplets hitting the windowsill soothes like a lullaby and makes Kyungsoo want to go back to sleep. But, he has his shift soon and people love drinking coffee in this gloomy weather. He lets the television run in the background while he washes up during his morning routine. His apartment is small so he sleeps on the sofa bed and can hear the program from his half bathroom. It’s just enough space for him and a guest but he never has those anyhow. There’s not much he can afford on his salary from his two part time jobs but this will do for now. At least he’s his own person and doesn’t have to answer to anyone anymore. 

The channel just happens to be the news and his ears perk up at something the announcer is saying. He peeks over the doorway to see on the television two people he never thought he would see again. The announcer goes “Two heroes Xiumin and Suho have disappeared causing the city and the police to go into a panic. The Seoul Council of Heroes have responded with this statement,” the program cuts to a clip of Kai, or Jongin has Kyungsoo used to know him as, on a podium outside the SCH headquarters. He’s gotten quite tall and buffed up, perhaps a bit more handsome which he didn’t think was possible, since the last time he saw him, which would have been a year ago since he dropped out of the training academy. He remembers when Jongin would try to leave him a message but he never replied and later the messages stopped coming. He’s in uniform, which also has had an upgrade. They seem to be made out of a new material and have a color scheme of navy blue and red. Ah, so he’s in Class Red now, Kyungsoo thinks to himself. The training academy was divided into different color classes, you started at Blue and the highest rank was Red. When Kyungsoo left, he was a Purple, somewhere in between the two. Only the Red Class were the real heroes, Purples were considered the sidekicks. The public didn’t care about the Purples. They had no name, just called for backup and weren’t deemed ready for the big stuff. You could stay a Purple Class for has long as the higher ups wanted you to be, which Kyungsoo just couldn’t take anymore. So he dropped out and left and never planned on seeing any of those people again. But Kyungsoo has learned that he doesn’t always get his way. 

“With our two fearless leaders absent,” Jongin speaks into the Mic, “we are all on high alert and it has become our top priority to find them and bring them back safely as soon as possible. We do have some leads about the situation and we hope the public still trusts in us to protect them and this city from any harm. Thank you.” As soon as he appeared, he’s gone again and it’s back to the news studio. Thinking about everything that happened before, and how far Kyungsoo pushed those memories back so he never has to think of it again, gives him the biggest headache. He’s definitely not feeling up to work now. 

 

..

He leans on the counter, counting down the seconds to the next minute which leaves him only centimeters closer to closing up the cafe and heading home. It was only a seven hour shift but today has felt excruciatingly long and he just wants to rest. The cafe hasn’t had a customer in the past few minutes which just leaves him bored. At least when a customer comes, he has something to do. He’s just all by himself now. 

While staring at the clock ticking by, the door rings, signaling a new customer. He’s only slightly frustrated, because even though he can tend to someone, the cafe is closing in ten minutes, which means he’s going to have to leave just a few minutes later now. As he looks up, he sees not one but three individuals, all dressed in black with masks on like some goth cult. Or perhaps people with something to hide. 

They step closer to the counter and the second he makes eye contact with the tall member in the front he knows exactly who they are.

“Chanyeol?” With the sudden declaration, the man leaps over the counter and hushes Kyungsoo by wrapping his hands around his mouth. This leads to Kyungsoo getting immeadiatly annoyed and swatting his hand away.

“What do you want!” Kyungsoo shouts out to the three guys in front of him. If that’s Chanyeol, then anyone would know that Baekhyun and Jongdae are the other two with him. The trio have been inseparable since they all met in elementary school. It used to be an inseparable quartet when Kyungsoo was around but lots of things have changed since their school days. 

“Can you quiet down! Can’t you see we are undercover?” the voice coming from behind Chanyeol whispers and Kyungsoo recognizes it instantly as Baekhyun. 

“The place is empty who can you be hiding from? And you didn’t answer my question, why are you here?” 

“Because…” Jongdae finally speaks up. He can sense that this cafe is of no danger and brings his mask down so Kyungsoo can really see his face. Jongdae has always been the glue that bonded them together but Kyungsoo hasn’t seen any of them for almost two years, not since he left the Academy. They all developed their powers around the same age and enrolled in the Academy at the same time. It was their collective dream to be the best heroes the world has ever seen. But Kyungsoo realized then that he wasn’t cut out for that life.

Jongdae looks Kyungsoo straight in the eyes, “Because, we need your help.”

 

..

They talked for a bit longer but decided it was best to get into the details at Kyungsoo’s place, apparently the only safe place in all of Seoul. His cramped apartment feels likes it’s about to implode with the extra bodies in the space but they somehow make it work. Kyungsoo is trying to wrap his head around it all but seeing your ex best friends after two years who suddenly need your help is becoming a lot to process. So, making a pot of coffee seemed like the most reasonable thing to do. 

“I know you said this had something to do with those heroes disappearing but I still don’t get how you three are involved.” Kyungsoo says as he snaps the the top of the coffee maker into place and it starts to brew. 

“Well, the thing is … is that we aren’t involved. The Academy and the Class Reds won’t let us in on any information and keep repeating the same old story that they are telling the newspaper” Chanyeol answers. “But we know that there is something deeper going on. Xiumin and Suho…” he pauses for a second,” Minseok and Junmyeon are me and Jongdae’s mentors. They wouldn’t just run off for no reason!”

“Maybe they went on a super secret honeymoon.” Kyungsoo comments. It makes Baekhyun let out a giggle that he was desperately trying to hold back.

“They wouldn’t do that. I know something happened to them and I’m going to find them.” Chanyeol states definitively. He doesn’t remember Chanyeol being so serious but he knows that if he’s being like this that he really believes what he’s saying. No wonder Jongdae and Baekhyun tagged along.

“Well, I get you want to find them but what do you need me for? After I dropped out, I left that whole life behind me. I haven’t even used my powers since then. And I’m not going to use them now.”

“But we need you! Why else would we go through the trouble of tracking you down if it wasn’t important! It’s not like your the easiest person to find.” Baekhyun mutters his words towards the end but Kyungsoo hears him clearly and he’s growing with frustration. 

“Did you guys think about exactly why that is? Because I didn’t want to be found and get dragged back into that mess ever again!”

“Kyungsoo it’s been three years since Luhan died. How are you-“ Baekhyun starts and immediately gets hit in the shoulder by Jongdae. Luhan. He hasn’t heard that name in so long even though he’ll never forget it. No matter how far he runs he will never be able to outrun it. Luhan was Kyungsoo’s mentor when he was back in the Academy. You did everything with your mentor from the simple things like training to catching the big bad guys. The citizens always called referred to the Class Purples as sidekicks but Kyungsoo didn’t mind being Luhan’s sidekick. He really enjoyed fighting side by side with him. But, it was all just a big fat hoax. Luhan never cared for Kyungsoo or the Council. He raised up in ranks and infiltrated the system just to pull off the biggest attack in the history of the Academy. He ended up killing hundreds of innocent people and Kyungsoo was the one to put an end to it all. He killed the man who he looked up to the most in the world, the man who betrayed him the deepest. He couldn’t face his peers anymore. He had to leave. And he’s not going back.

The others are looking very concerned at him and he doesn’t realize why until he notices that his whole apartment is shaking.

“Soo, stop it!” Jongdae shouts at him. Kyungsoo snaps out of it and stops the earthquake. He can’t help but feel embarrassed and even more confused now. 

“Sorry.” Jongdae can see the hurt underneath it all. He always understood him the best but he’s like that with everyone. Empathy runs deep into Jongdae’s core and he always able to make people feel heard and accepted. He walks over to the coffee pot and pours a cup for Kyungsoo. “Thanks.”

“Look, I know how you feel about the Academy and the system. It sucks I know. I didn’t want to reach out to you but … like I said, we need you. We got a lead on where Minseok and Junmyeon could be but …” he takes a deep breath, “we can’t do it without you.”

“I’m not that special.”

“What are you talking about? Before you left, you were the strongest person the Academy had! You were at the top of the class for three years straight! It’s really dangerous what we are about to do and we can’t have our best guy not be there with us.” Chanyeol says. He’s always admired how much Chanyeol sincerely means the things he says. Like, sometimes having no filter comes with its disadvantages but he’s just an honest person.

“So from your fire powers, Jongdae’s sonic speed, and Baekhyun’s mind manipulation that’s not enough? There’s three of you and just one of me.”

“But three plus one is four! And the Chingus aren’t the Chingu’s without four.”

“Oh god, are you guys still using that.” Kyungsoo sighs. He remembers when they came up with that in tenth grade but has never liked it because it’s just so corny. However, Chanyeol thought it was the most brilliant thing that ever came out of Baekhyun’s mouth.

“We haven’t used it since you left. But I think it’s time for it to come back. Please, if we want them back we need you to help us. The more the merrier as they say.” Jongdae adds.

“And besides, who doesn’t love kicking butt!” Baekhyun excitedly chimes in. And before he can say no again, they come up with a plan. 

 

..

Maybe Kyungsoo should have thought harder before saying yes to the most idiotic plan ever created. Granted, it was only planned an three hours before but they had no time to waste. The intel they collected said that the missing mentors should be located in an abandoned Academy training facility. Sure enough, they were there, tied up and screaming to get out. Chanyeol, as usual, doesn’t comprehend and runs over to them but then the gang is met with a swarm of robot henchman. How typical.

He backed into a corner, surrounded but the super bad evil henchman and just hurls himself at them. His force powers give him the strength to knock them all on their feet and get them down. He’s regaining his footing and sees Jongdae zip right past him.

“Jongdae!” Kyungsoo yells out and faster than he can blink, Jongdae is in front of him. 

“What’s up!”

“We need to grab Suho and Xiumin and get the heck out of here before any more of these goons pop out.”

“Agreed.” Jongdae zips away again and Kyungsoo tries to find out where these henchman came from. He sees a back door at the other end of the room and starts to head towards it. 

“Where are you going?” Chanyeol yells out to Kyungsoo. He’s burning some poor robot to a crisp before running over to him.

“We need to find a way out of here and this seems like the only exit!”

“Well, hold up let me get the others!”

“Beat you to it!” When Jongdae came back, he bought Baekhyun, Suho, and Xiumin with him. 

“Hey, I was beating up bad guys over there!”

“Forget that let’s get out of here.”

Xiumin and Suho are really hurt so they have to lean on Jongdae and Chanyeol to move anywhere. There’s no point in staying when the mission was to get them back safely. 

“And where exactly are you taking my prisoners?” a voice that is chilling to the bone eerily speaks to them. When Kyungsoo turns around he’s met with none other than someone he thought he would never see again, Tao. He was another Class Purple that trained pretty closely with the four of them. But he was easily swayed by Luhan’s manifesto to take over the world and do all the bad things supervillains love to do. He became Kyungsoo’s evil replacement essentially once it all went down. The Academy captured him once Luhan was put to rest and was sent to a prison dedicated to holding people with special powers. But seeing that he’s here in front of them, must have found a way out.

“Tao? Don’t tell me you’re trying to the whole evil mastermind thing now.” Baekhyun quips.  
with these two model heroes.”

“Luhan was a psychopath and it seems like you are no different!” Kyungsoo shouts as he charges at Tao. Guess it looks like today is just the day to kick everyone’s ass. 

Jongdae exits with Xiumin and Suho to take them back to Kyungsoo’s apartment while Chanyeol and Baekhyun back up Kyungsoo in the fight. Fire and rumble fly through the air and Baekhyun uses his manipulation abilities to hit Tao with everything they got. But with Tao’s ability to create and manipulate steel, including covering his whole body with steel as a barrier of protection, the gang isn’t going to win this fight easily. 

 

.. 

The place is barely standing when they finally capture him. They hold him down in the exact same contraption he had the mentors hold up in. Karma has a funny way of working sometimes. 

“It’s not fun when you have to strapped down in a power dampening super chair is it now.” Baekhyun remarks. If it wasn’t for manipulating the henchmen’s programming to turn on their master, they would have been at it for longer and who knows if they would have even made it alive. Super evil robot henchmen can pack quite the punch. The gang's all bruised and pain is firing through every nerve but they’re still standing, holding it together.

“This isn’t the end! Soon, I’ll get you back for all of this!” Tao shouts. It’s almost laughable at how much he’s playing into his crazy scheme. It wasn’t even executed that great but without Luhan, Tao seems quite lost. Kyungsoo can relate just a little to his woes. 

“See you in another two years. I don’t think prison takes kindly to escaped convicts.” Jongdae says.

“Hey, I called Kai. He’s bringing the Team and the police down and said we should stay here until they arrive.” Chanyeol returns back to the circle.

“What the hell did you call Kai for! He’s just going to yell at us! And especially me. You know he’s my mentor!” Baekhyun yells out and the gang just laughs at him. It was nice, reconnecting with them. Feeling a part of a team again. Kyungsoo didn’t realize how much he missed his best friends until this very moment. The people that he wants by his side while he beats the bad guys and saving his ass from being blown to bits. They have always been her for him but these past few years, he can’t say the same. 

“Guess I should head out now. See you guys later.” Kyungsoo starts to walk away when Jongdae grabs his arm. “And where do you think you’re going?” Jongdae says to him. 

“Back home. Where I’m supposed to be.”

“You think we are going to let you go that easily again? Well, that’s not happening.” Baekhyun says. 

“You’re supposed to be here, with us. That’s how it was always supposed to be.” Chanyeol chimes in. They’re all standing in front of him now. He didn’t think that after all this time, they would care about him anymore. He shunned everyone away even the people he cared about the most in the world. He couldn’t stand to be hurt again. After what Luhan did, he didn’t have the strength to look anyone in the eye. He felt like everything was his fault. All those lives taken, maybe if he wasn’t so naive, he could have saved them.

“Hey, Kyungsoo,” Jongdae squeezes lightly on his wrist, calming him down and numbing his inner thoughts, “After everything that happened, we knew you needed to take your time to recover. And we had to let you leave. But, after having you back, even just for tonight, we can’t let you go again. We are your best friends and we will always be here for you. So,” he looks Kyungsoo straight in the eyes again for the second time tonight, “please come back to the Academy.”

“It’s not the Chingus without the four of us.” Chanyeol quips but means sincerely.

He feels like it’s selfish to want them back in his life. But he puts those thoughts aside because fuck it, he missed his Chingus.

 

..

It’s been four months since the Chingus defeated Tao and once Kai had gotten to the scene, they got put on probation for breaking numerous amounts of rules and Academy code. However, they were also recognized by the Academy for their outstanding bravery, courage, and strength to defeat Tao and save their mentors, who made sure that were recognized for such heroic actions. Kyungsoo re-enrolled in the Academy much to the persuasion of his best friends and now they all find themselves standing in front of the Council Of Heroes, just like Kyungsoo had seen Kai do many months ago. 

It’s their Graduation ceremony from Class Purple to Class Red and Kyungsoo never thought he would reach this day and maybe he wouldn’t have if it wasn’t of the three men standing next to him.

“These four outstanding trainees have proven themselves to be some of the bravest and best the Academy as ever seen.” Kai starts to speak into the mic, “and it is my greatest honor to name them Class Red Heroes. Congratulations!”

From the cameras flashing to receiving their special medals, the rest is quite a whirlwind. He recalls seeing Jongdae’s smile when Chanyeol laughs heartily at one of Baekhyun’s many unfunny puns and that’s all Kyungsoo needs to remember. Three plus one will always equal four.


End file.
